


Unsuspected Visitor

by Pokypup49



Series: A Normal Life [3]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Late night chat, Maps, Pancakes!, Robbery, Wild West, Working Chloe, break in, broken dream ending, excited Nate, pregnant Elena, very long story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-05
Updated: 2017-04-05
Packaged: 2018-10-15 01:54:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10548072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokypup49/pseuds/Pokypup49
Summary: A normal night leads to a break into the Drake home however the item is not one that is suspected, and neither is the robber's identity! When the item is discovered to be an original and leading to a treasure, excitement brews.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry this went on so long. I actually wanted to make it longer but then I proof read it and went Yikes! I don't do anything at work... or haven't lately. So, this is the byproduct of 8 hours just staring at a computer screen.

                It went as normal as normal goes. Nate helped with the dishes, then they sat down on the couch, feet in each other’s laps, and read their own books. Nate had an older book, something Elena could guess was about their next adventure. However, it’s empty black binding, tattered edges, and yellowed pages went on about lost treasures of the Wild West. Nate didn’t’ tell her, but he was planning out a summer vacation next year to North Dakota or Kansas, or maybe Nevada. Elena’s book was on her tablet. She was flipping through a free murder-mystery, book she received from Amazon. She knew at some point they should start reading on baby care and child development, but they instead found themselves engrossed in their own adventures.

                “Come on, Cowboy,” Elena yawned, unaware of the irony in the remark considering what he was reading. “You ready for bed?”

                Nate looked up and at his watch. “Wow.” He bookmarked the page, setting down his book and stretched. “It’s ten! We are sure staying up late.” There was definite sarcasm in his voice.

                “Real party animals” Elena giggled. “But we are finalizing our plans for Costa Rica’s dig tomorrow.” She detangled herself from his legs and stood up with a stretch.

                Nate frowned. “I don’t like you down there so late in your pregnancy.”

                Elena waved him off. She was getting there, 2 months to go. “I will come back before my due date.”

                Nate raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t we just wait till after. We have enough money.” He got up and pulled Elena by the hips towards him.

                “I thought you liked Costa Rica,” she snickered. “Don’t tell me that you have the same relationship with Costa Rica as you do Panama?”

                Nate laughed. “Not exactly.”

                “Then,” she said with a pat of his chest. “We better get a work on it. Come on!”

                Nate grumped again. “Fucking howler monkeys,” he mumbled.

                Elena chose to ignore him. He was being silly.

                They both climbed into bed, shuffling under the blankets. Elena was finding that the baby would not play soccer with her bladder if she was laying on her side, her right side, and cuddled next to Nate. Nate took it as a sign that the child/fetus loved him more that Elena and she was tempted at times to agree with him. But they both knew it wasn’t true.

                “I love you,” he whispered as he kissed the tip of her head.

                “I love you too,” she replied into his chest. “G’night.”

                Nothing was slightly abnormal Nothing signaled or gave heed to an exciting night that was to follow. Nate did have a gun. Both he and Elena wished they could look away and pretend there was no evil in the world and there was no need for self-protection, but they did live in New Orleans, and with their own experiences, they preferred to be prepared rather than regret not having it. Nate was a thief. He knew how life could be. He did keep it safely locked up in a safe under the bed. It made Elena nervous at times, but wishing you never had to use it was far less consequential than wishing you had it.

                At 2:30am, Elena woke to a ticking sound downstairs. Being a light sleeper, she woke immediately and looked up, alert and keen on the noise. Most of the time Nate just reminded her that the house was shifting, and Elena was almost ready to dismiss the sound. Then there was a rattle. "Nate,” she whispered, shaking him violently. “Nathan.”

                Nate jumped up and looked around, “What? What?’ He refocused his eyes and looked around frantically.

                “Some one’s breaking in.” She whispered, nearly in a panic.

                Nate motioned her to be quiet as they both sat and listened. Then the rattle happened again but this time with the swing of the front door. “Crap,” Nate muttered as he flipped out of the bed and reached under the bed, finding the safe instantly. He checked to see if it was loaded and moved to the side of the door, peering out, listening for movement. Elena joined his side. He looked at her, “call the cops,” he whispered. She nodded and rushed to find her phone.

                Nathan could hear rummaging going through the shelves and drawers, but he only heard one set of footsteps. He emerged from the room, softly creeping down the stairs. He hoped to just hold the person at gunpoint while the police came. As he turned down the main floor, his eyes searched frantically through the dark for movements.  Suddenly, it was quiet. The burglar knew he was there. The lower bathroom was to his left and he stopped before crossing the doorway. He listened and looked in the darkness. He took one slow step, the gun in ready position, then another. As he crossed the bathroom, an arm reached out and grabbed it, popping it out of his wrist with a simple snap.

                _Rookie mistake_ , Nathan growled at himself. But he wasn’t going to allow himself to be taken down by some punk kid. He went on the offensive, reaching into the bathroom and grabbing the person by the shirt and pulling them out, shoving both of them into a shelf. He pulled the wrist behind the person, taking notice they had a smaller frame, and… long hair? Her boot slammed onto his bare foot immediately causing his leg to buckle and him cry out. The woman whipped around, breaking his hold and went to drive a punch to his face. Nate blocked it. Nate retaliated with another offensive to grab her, but she let a good punch to his ribs and then gave a “hi-ya” as she executed a kick to his hip, again, causing him to buckle a little and let his guard down. Nate instantly found familiarity in the voice tone and squinted his eyes as he tried to recover. Who was this? What did they want? He didn’t have a chance to try and grab her again as she lifted her leg to kick him in the head. “Nice try,” Nate said as he grabbed it and lifted her off her feet, planting her on the ground. The struggle then erupted as the two wrestled on the floor, making their way in the hallway towards the gun in the bathroom. Suddenly a knee slammed into his groin and he coughed as he loosened his grip on her. She threw him off like he was a dirty blanket and jumped on him. As she went to punch him in the face the light flicked on and Elena stood at the front door.

                “Oh God Nate!”

                Nate blinked as the light reached his eyes and he looked up. “Chloe?”

                Chloe instantly hopped off her old friend. “Well, this is embarrassing,” she laughed.

                Nate looked at Elena and then at Chloe. “What are you doing here? You know we have a door bell, right?”

                “The last time I was on top of you…”

                “What are you doing here,” Elena cut her off. She was not the least bit amused like Nate was. She was tired, the baby was awake in her stomach, and the police were almost there.

                “Oh,” Chloe tried to regain her composure. “I certainly didn’t know it was the Drake household I was breaking into.” She reached down and helped Nate to his feet. “You’ve aged… well.”

                Nate gave her a lopsided grin. “So have you. Except, one of us is retired.”

                “If that’s what you call it.” Chloe waved the comment off.

                Nate dusted himself off as he heard sirens in the distance. “Would you like some coffee, maybe a beignet?”

                Chloe shook her head as lights appeared in the window.

                “I can make breakfast,” Nate continued to offer. He went to the door.

                “Naw,” she shook her head. “What are you going to tell them?”

                Nate shrugged. “An old friend stopped by…” He smiled and opened the door to leave.

                Elena held her belly and raised an eyebrow at Chloe. “We haven’t heard from you in a while.” She was trying to make small talk. She wasn’t sure if the threat was gone or not. She knew Chloe wouldn’t do anything to harm them, they were good friends and her and Nate had a special relationship. It wasn’t anything she could be jealous of. Elena wasn’t the jealous type. But she saw how they laughed and joked with each other. Their friendship was older than their own relationship. She had to give that respect. However, it was almost 3am, and she was 7 months pregnant, so her patience was a tad thin. “What are you here for?”

                “Jumping right to the point,” Chloe snickered. As Nate came back into the house, she sat on the couch. “A client simply asked me to steal something that was stolen from him and return it to him.” She looked from Elena to Nate. “Some kind of map.”

                “That’s vague,” Elena chuckled. “Would you like me to retrieve Nate’s collection?”

                “Har-har,” Nate joked at his wife. “But, I do have quite a few.”

                “Well,” Chloe leaned forward, putting her hands together and her chin on the back of them, resting her elbows on her knees. “Maybe you can help me understand why it’s so important.”

                “You do know what time it is,” Elena looked at the two of them though Nate simply shrugged it off.

                “Sunshine,” Chloe laughed. “I know what time it is in London, and it’s not sleepy time.”

                “How’s Cutter?” Nate changed the topic.

                “Oh, he’s lovely. Come to find out him and your brother have a lot in common. They get along like old friends.”

                Nate nodded his approval.

                “Map,” Elena reminded, rubbing her brow.

                “Oh,” Chloe snapped as she remembered. “It’s this old 1800s or early 1900s map of North Dakota. I’m not sure why, but my client has agreed to pay top dollar for it.”

                Elena burst into laughter. “North Dakota? Have you ever been to North Dakota?”

                “No,” Chloe shook her head, amused at Elena’s outburst. “But I hear nothing is there.”

                Nate thought for a second as he tried to remember a map he bought.

                “There isn’t.” Elena attempted to recover herself from the outburst. “It’s North Dakota.”

                “Well, he says it’s a collectable.” Chloe shrugged. “He’s got quite the collection of old west memorabilia. He said it was stolen a few years ago.” She looked at Nate who was running his hand through his messy morning hair. “Did you steal a map and keep it?”

                Nate shook his head. “Not a map. Not anything like that.” He looked up towards another bookshelf and started looking at the books. Both Elena and Chloe watched him silently. He looked though a couple titles, running his finger along the books before pulling an older rougher looking book out. He opened it and pulled out an old worn looking map. It was on thicker paper, but looked terribly delicate. He unfolded it carefully and laid it out on the coffee table.

                Elena came closer to looked while Chloe went to looking it over. “This is North Dakota?” The map was mostly bare besides a few distinctive marks. They would see some lines, shaded parts, but it was not a topography map and there was no red X for a treasure.

                “How do you know if it’s the right one?” Elena asked quietly as she looked at the map.

                “It’s supposed to have a marking on it.” Chloe ran her fingers along the aged paper. She leaned in looking at it in confusion. Elena also leaned in to look, though she didn’t know what she was looking for.

                “What is your client from?” Nate was the only one standing, not taking part in looking for a mysterious mark on the parchment.

                Chloe sat up with a chuckle. “That’s the funny part. He lives in Russia.”

                “Russia,” Elena clarified, unbelieving what she just heard.

                Chloe nodded.

                “What would a Russian want with an old 1900s map of North Dakota?” Nate rubbed his chin, then scratched his head.

                “Moreover,” Elena glared at her husband. “Why would you?”

                “I have my reasons,” Nate smirked.

                “Uh-huh.”

                “Not sure entirely… He’s not American at all. He’s full blooded Russian. But the way he described it being stolen I was almost sure it was you.” Chloe crossed her arms and looked at Nate. “Where did you get it then?”

                Nate laughed and rubbed the back of his head, working out the knot that he got when his head hit the floor from wrestling. “I bought it on E-bay.”

                “E-bay,” Elena gasped. “Seriously?”

                “Yeah…” Nate chuckled nervously.

                “That makes sense,” Chloe nodded as she put something in her head together. “He was excited to find it again, but told me that he was outbid by a guy in New Orleans and wanted me to go retrieve it.”

                Elena kept her glare on Nathan. “How much did you spend Nate?”

                Nate continued to chuckle. “More than I should have, but less than I expected.”

                Elena just stared at him, her arms now crossed in front of her, looking completely annoyed. “Please amuse me, Love, why is this so important then?”

                Nate leaned over after taking in a deep breath. “It’s supposed to be an old map of the Badlands.” His fingers traced the lines of the paper. “This next summer I wanted to go explore is and maybe find some old outlaw treasure.”

                Chloe looked at Elena as she held back a laugh. “You’ve been calling him ‘Cowboy’ too long.”

                Elena joined in the laughter. “I suppose so.”

                “I just thought it’s be cool,” Nate tried to defend himself.

                “Well, the map is supposedly a map to some outlaw’s treasure.” Chloe sat back, crossing her legs. “He hid all his gold while he was running from the law. Then sent it to a relative.” She bit her lip in thought. “Then the Russian got it while visiting. I’m not even sure it’s real.”

                “Gold map,” Nate mumbled.

                Elena was sure he stopped listening after that. “Nate,” she said warningly.

                “Oh, come on,” Nate whined. “No one’s shooting at me. I’m not doing anything illegal.”

                Elena simply pointed at her extended belly.

               “Oh,” Chloe sat up excitedly. “I did notice, but I forgot to say, Congrats you two!”

               “Thanks,” Elena smiled brightly at her before turning to Nate. “And you are so excited to go to Costa Rica…”

               “Costa Rica can wait,” Nate waved his hand at her. “And you can go with us!”

               Elena rubbed her forehead.

               “I don’t even know what I’m looking for,” Close waved her hand over the map. “Why don’t I just take this back to my client and I’ll split the pot with you?”

               Nate really debated on the offer, but the lure of adventure was still thick. “What marking are you looking for?”

               “Some initials. He said the artist sighed it. R.L.P?”

               “R.L.P.” Nate mulled that over for a second or two before he flipped the map over and in the left corner was a faded R.L.P scribbled. “R…L…P…Holy crap!” He looked at Elena with excitement. “Robert Leroy Parker!”

               Elena and Chloe looked at each other and shrugged.

               “It’s Butch Cassidy!”

               “When did you become a cowboy expert?” Chloe reached over to give him a friendly shove.

               Nate thumbed back to the bookshelf. “Doing some reading.” He puffed up his chest at his ‘extensive’ knowledge.

               “So,” Chloe looked at the map. “This _is_ a treasure map?”

               Nate nodded. He ran his hand through his hair. “But your client isn’t looking for the gold?”

               Chloe shook her head. “He’s almost 70 years old and fat.”

               Elena snorted.

               “Seriously,” Chloe nodded. “And his whole house looks like a museum out of Wyoming.”

               Nate and Elena both laughed. “Well,” Nate rubbed his hands together excitedly. “I’m going to make some coffee.” He started walking over to the kitchen, turning on more lights.

               Elena got up from her spot and stretched. “Then, I’m going to bed.”

               Chloe reached up to stop her. “You’re not going to stay up and decipher this with us?”

               “The baby doesn’t like the smell of coffee,” Nate clarified from the kitchen.

               “You poor Dear,” Chloe gasped.

               Elena nodded sadly. “I’m on a role too for keeping food down, I’d like to keep it that way. The guest room has a bed that is made. You’re welcome to it,” she motioned towards Chloe. “And I’ll make breakfast.”

               “Thank you, Love.” Close smiled gently and watched Elena leave, heading up the stairs.

               “So,” Nathan grinned as he started the coffee pot. “Mr. Butch Cassidy, where did you hide your gold?”

               Chloe turned around to see the glow in his eyes from the excitement. “You are giving me this map, right?”

               Nate shrugged. “Only if you let me have a go at it first.” He walked over to her and sat down on the floor.

               She leaned in, squinting her eyes at Nate. “Nate, how much did you actually spend on this map?”

               Nate laughed. “Elena would be rather mad.” Chloe raised her eyebrows in anticipation, but Nate waved it off. “It’s was only $300.” He looked back at the map. “You’re Russian couldn’t afford $300?”

               Chloe’s eyes were wide in amazement. Then she shook her head and looked confused.

               “Wait,” Nate pointed at her, “what is he paying you?”

               “He’s offering more than that!”

               “I’d hope so!” Nate chuckled. He brought the map up to the light. “The question I have, does this map answer the question if they died in Bolivia or not?”

               The next morning, Elena woke to an empty bed. She sighed. “I bet you he’s asleep at the kitchen table,” she mumbled to herself. As she made her way downstairs however, she found the two of them laughing at the kitchen table. “Did you sleep at all?”

               Nate looked up. “Good morning, Gorgeous.” He jumped up and gave her a good morning kiss. “We figure all this out. We’ve been waiting for you to wake so that we could show you.”

               “And,” Elena raised her eyebrows n suspicion, “convince me to let you go find it?”

               Nate snickered as he grabbed her hand and led her to the kitchen table. There was more than a map on it. He had the lap top open with a couple pages pulled up on the web, a couple books, and two empty coffee mugs. “You guys were busy,” she breathed.

               Chloe nodded. “It’s not of North Dakota, Elena. It’s of the Salton Sea and that range in California!”

               Elena looked confused. “But Butch Cassidy’s gang was in Wyoming, North Dakota, and such… not California… Is it a fake?”

               Nate shook his head. “Nope,” he grinned. “There’s a range down there of dormant and extinct volcanoes. He hid it down there. We figured it out!” He held himself from jumping up and down. “Get your camera, Babe! We’re going to California!”

               Elena motioned for him to calm down. “Easy,” she said softly. “This sounds all too familiar…”

               Chloe tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?” She pointed at the map. “We just need a metal detector. Look, It’s not a gorge, it’s a mountain range. And we have it pinpointed here,” she said as she pointed to a spot on the map. “This is a weekend trip!”

               “No,” Elena reached for the computer and started a Google search.

               Nate went back to put another pot of coffee on, then remembered Elena and turned around looking excitedly at Chloe. Then Elena stepped back and motioned for them to look on the screen. “In 2010 a young man and his son found a box Mexican and American gold bullion. They found 3 old cases.”

               Nate’s jaw dropped. “What?” It came out as a whine. He looked, Chloe getting up to look over his shoulder. “You have got to be kidding…”

               Chloe sighed heavily. “Well… Then it looks like this is useless.” She collapsed in her seat. “I will take this so my Russian friend and send you a nice envelope.”

               Nate collapsed in his own chair. “What a downer.”

               “Sorry,” Elena rubbed his shoulder. “Chloe, stay for breakfast.”

               Chloe nodded.

               Nate patted his hand on hers and she departed to start some breakfast. He looked at Chloe and smirked.

               “You miss it, don’t you, Nate?”

               Nate nodded. “Just a little. But having Elena’s pancakes in the morning make it worthwhile.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to make it longer, and actually send Nate to California and get more into the hunt itself... but it was getting too long as it was. I really wanted to see Chloe interact with Nate and Elena again. I have grown to like her as a character. Anyway, I had a really had a good time being entertained by this idea. Hope you enjoyed reading it.


End file.
